when to intro discus fry to food

[discusluver]

Hi all after deciding to breed discus about 8 months ago i have finally hit the jackpot have a couple of breeding pairs in there own 130litre tanks and several 800 litre litre plus grow out tanks ,anyway i have had a new pair form in the last week in one of the grow out tanks and they got busy laying a good size first time batch of eggs ,so i left them to fend for there eggs in the grow out tank so i could build a good parental instinct in them for the first few batches, so this lovely blue diamond pair have decided that the are gr8 parents first shot they have produced about 50 healthy now 2 day old fry! i thought they would stuff up but the parents have got the fry 2 attach and both parents are happily being swarmed! YES i have put a divider in with micro stocking mesh and it is working really well to stop the fry getting in to the main tank area and becoming discus kamakazis. i know i need to move this new pair and babies asap into there own tank but i have to let the fry grow a little b4 doing it as they are so fragile and extremly fast but not in danger at the moment beacuse tank divider is doing a gr8 job keeping them in and the big bad adults in the grow out stage away!
I have a couple of questions though,

1.WHEN SHOULD I MOVE THEM ALL AND 2.WHEN SHOULD I START INTRODUCING BABY BRINE TO FRY? ONLY REASON WHY THEY WERE NOT MOVED WHEN THEY WERE EGGS AND WRIGGLERS WAS BECAUSE I DIDNT THINK THEY WOULD DO THIS WELL DIDNT THINK FRY WOULD EVEN GET TO ATTACHMENT STAGE IN MY GROW OUT TANK!!!!! WOW WAS I WRONG!!! :shock: :shock: :D

If anyone could answer my above questions with any advice it would be greatly apprectiated. :D

[scott bowler]

discusluver
wow , well i would do every thing that i can not to move the babes at all if you can ,as for feeding fry i start to try live brine at about day 7 to 10 on the parents , just see if they will take it they will feed of the parents as long as the parents will let them, but after a few weeks try to get them on the brine full time , but leave the parents in there ,

[ILLUSN]

live bbs on day 3 of free swimming.

keep feeding the fish regularly, they'll start to pick at beefheart the parents "spit" after around 1 week to 10 days of free swimming. at this stage they will also start to take VERY finly crushed tetrabits and flake.

[discusluver]

hi scott and illusn thank u both for your response. now at day 3 swimmers and they are growing nicely have lost two out of approx 50 and the parents are really happy sitting closely together and still being swarmed and seem to have a good slime coat going on. it is amazing to watch when 2 or 3 babies get LOST the male swims to them collects them in one swoop into his mouth and swims them to the female then spits them safely on to her body. these 2 have blown me away with there auto 1st shot parental abilities they are a pair i think i will keep for a few years yet. i have also noticed or it might be my imagination but the rest of the grow out gang in the main tank area seem to have the lovebug as there has been a major increase in breeding activities pairing off behaviour I THINK it could be exess feramones from the new parents! WHAT do u guys think???? anyways i will try to get some pics on the forum today or 2moro and once again a big thanks to illusn and scott obviously gr8 advice because it is the same resonse from both of you! keep yas posted :D :D

[ILLUSN]

once one pair spawns, the rest follow shortly, in my fish room its usually caused by big water changes and the approach of a low preassure system or cold front, or thunderstorm.

if your tanks are all linked it could be due to hormones and pheramones.

[discusluver]

hi again i think your dead on the money there i find if i have a storm coming i leave my curtains open and always make sure i do a water change as it approches and nealy everytime i do taht the fish go crazy and spawn. the same with my peppermint bn but they dont respond as good as the discus do lol. i must admit i have been bouncing of the walls since this new pair have succesfully bred and i thought i was a enthusiastic disus fan but now im devoted HOOK LINE AND SINKER
and now that i have had results my better half is just as sucked in hahahahahahahaha :D :D